Under the Hollywood Sign: The Collected Stories of Tom Reamy

Reamy (1934–1977) should find new fans through this impressive collection of 13 horror and science fiction tales, plus one screenplay. In the title story, a hardboiled L.A. cop spots mysterious redheaded men at every scene of mayhem he encounters and becomes obsessed with uncovering their identities. The Nebula Award–winning novelette “San Diego Lightfoot Sue” follows the unusual love affair between a naive teenage boy and an older woman who makes supernatural attempts to close their age gap. “The Mistress of Windraven,” about the disparity between an author’s rich imagination and her unhappy married life, is simultaneously a parody of romance fiction and, through the narrator’s editor, who’s more interested in cocktail dates than reading “lady novelists,” a critique of publishing. In the bravura “Twilla,” a no-nonsense schoolteacher faces off against a bad-seed 13-year-old student. No matter how outlandish the situations, the author makes the reader believe them with his self-confident storytelling, which runs the gamut from Bradbury-esque humanism to Sturgeon-ish strangeness. Some stories might appear a little dated (the screenplay, “Sting!,” plays like a 1950s monster rehash), but Subterranean Press has done a great favor to the speculative fiction community by restoring this unique voice and vision to print. Anyone interested in SFF pioneers should check this out. Agent: Vaughne Hansen, Virginia Kidd Agency. (May)